The bills, HR1618 and S779 – dubbed SHIPA for short – seek to prohibit states from allowing trailers longer than 53 feet to operate on the National Highway System, which includes the Interstate System, unless the states allowed the longer trailers as of June 1, 2008.

They also take aim at combos by seeking to restrict states to the maximum lengths on the books as of June 1, 2008, as well.

The bills also seek to freeze the weight limits currently in place. The bills aim to prohibit states from allowing weights to exceed interstate weight limits on the Interstate System unless it was lawful on

July 1, 1956. In the case of the overall gross weight, the limit of any group of two or more consecutive axles would stay consistent with the weights enacted with the Federal-Aid Highway Amendments of 1974.

The bills do not eliminate a state’s ability to permit oversize or overweight loads. LL